Rail safety

Turns out the railroad tracks where a Metro-North train derailed were inspected just two days before the accident May 17.

It would be easy to make jokes about Inspector Magoo. But this was not the more detailed biannual inspection. And the outcome of this accident gives me and other occasional Metro-North critics pause.

As the Greenwich Time article notes, the cars involved in the crash were the new M-8 cars. My first reaction, when the purchase of these cars by Metro-North and the state Department of Transportation was first being discussed during the Rell administration, was the cost seemed excessive compared with the benefit. There were a lot of problems as the cars were being tested, too.

Judging by the results of what could have been a horrific crash last Friday, these new cars are built for safety. Dozens of people were injured and many hospitalized, but no one was killed. The cars manifestly did a good job of protecting their occupants.

My feeling, at the time then-Gov. M. Jodi Rell were promoting the M-8 purchase, was that Metro-North should use older cars until the lines could be converted to a single electrical system, rather than a highly complicated electrical power arrangement, with diesel on some of the branch lines. But it appears, on cursory analysis, that Gov. Rell and others who supported this admittedly extravagant expense foresaw its lifesaving potential.